Congressman John L. Mica (R-FL) and Congresswoman
Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA) plan to introduce a bill to establish a national media
campaign to prevent underage drinking in the United States, once the the House of
Representatives reconvenes. The media campaign would be conducted by the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and would remain separate from the current Office of
National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.

The need for a separate and "free-standing"
campaign became evident last year when Congress voted down a measure to add
underage-drinking prevention messages to the ONDCP youth anti-drug media campaign.
Opponents, including General Barry McCaffrey, contended that the addition of alcohol would
dilute the anti-drug message.

About the Bill
The Mica/Roybal-Allard legislation would direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services
to conduct an independent media campaign directed at underage drinking prevention. The
Office of Public Health and Science, in conjunction with the Surgeon General, will conduct
the campaign with messages based on current scientific research. The campaign will be
modeled after ONDCP's anti-drug media campaign, while being separately funded.
Specifically, the legislation will authorize:

Up to $1 million in the first year for DHHS to
present a comprehensive strategy to develop, set in motion, conduct, and evaluate the
underage-drinking prevention campaign;

Funding for the campaign for each of the following
five years; and

Creation of a media campaign to complement, not
replace, existing efforts.

What You Can Do
Contact your Representative's office and ask him or her to sign on as a co-sponsor1 to Congressman Mica's and Congresswoman Roybal-Allard's
National Media Campaign to Prevent Underage Drinking Act of 2000. You may reach your
Representative utilizing the House of Representatives' "Write Your
Representative" page at http://www.house.gov/writerep/.
Members may also be reached by calling the Capital Switchboard at 202-224-3121. The
phone number for Congressman Mica's office is 202-225-4035 and Congresswoman
Roybal-Allard's is 202-225-1766.

Underage drinking costs Americans more than $58
billion per year (Source: Levy, Stewart & Wilbur. Costs of Underage Drinking.
Pacific Institute, 1999. Written for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention).

If the cost of underage drinking were shared
equally by each congressional district, the amount would total more than $134 million per
district (Source: Levy, Stewart & Wilbur. Costs of Underage Drinking.
Pacific Institute, 1999. Written for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention).

Young people who began drinking before age 15
were four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence than those who began drinking at
age 21 (Source: Grant & Dawson. Age at Onset of Alcohol Use and its
Association with DSM-IV Alcohol Abuse and Dependence: Results from the National
Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey.Journal of Substance Abuse, Volume
9, pages 103-110, 1997).

In 1998, about 10.4 million current drinkers
were between the age of 12-20 years old. Of these, 5.1 million were binge drinkers,
including 2.3 million heavy drinkers2 (Source: Summary
of Findings from the 1998 National Household
Survey on Drug Abuse. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1999).

2. The National Household Survey on Drug Abuse defines current use as at
least one drink in the past month, binge use as five or more drinks on the same occasion
at least once in the past month, and heavy use as five or more drinks on the same occasion
on at least five different days in the past month.

For background information on past efforts to include
alcohol messages in the ONDCP National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, please see the
BoozeNews archives at http://www.cspinet.org/booze/arch.htm.